THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP #19
Ready Player One
For those of you familiar with my Notes, which I’ll get to in the next section, you’ll know that in the somewhat distant past, my family and I watched a movie called Ready Player One. We all, except The Toddler, really liked this flick. The Toddler had plenty of moments where he stared at the TV like the rest of us, but he can be a pain once he’s determined that he wants to watch something else. From start to finish, it took us three nights spread out over a week. That is NOT my ideal way of watching a movie, but hey, family life.
If you don’t already know, this film takes place in a fictional dystopian-like future where escapism into a virtual reality-style video game is the norm. Here, people would rather spend most of their lives as an avatar than to live their lives in the flesh. Things happen, bad people need to be stopped, and the good guys win.
Escapism comes in many forms in our world, and this film does a good job touching upon its benefits and its downfalls. I have been trying to become more aware of my involvement in escapism within my current and past life and to let that inform me about being more mindful of what I want and need from the present and future. If we’re happy and living our best life, we run to it and not away.
Ready Player One is a great flick, and I think you’ll like it. Check out the clip and see for yourself.
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Top Notes
I have another blog now. If you are connected to me on social you already know this. I won't go into the why, as that would be better done in a future Workshop post. Essentially, GSW is longform and Notes.gs is shortform and (is supposed to be) daily.
A part of what makes TNSDD tick is the idea of it being somewhat of an aggregator of everything else in my life, including things I post or share elsewhere on the internet or even with the GSW blog. A variety page, if you will, allowing me to put together things that may not otherwise go together within a longer cohesive post. I can try new things and still have other things around to entertain or inform the guests of my blog. Notes.gs, while similar, is not a replacement for TNSDD. Everything evolves as it should. In that spirit of evolution and trying new things, I bring you Top Notes.
Note 001
"Present Situation: Drinking caffeinated coffee to stay awake, though I should go to bed, and wondering if I'm actually going to go through with this "Notes" idea that's been brewing (see what I did there) in my head for sometime over a year. It started out as an idea for a page on my main site that I would update occasionally. I was very resistant to add it as another feature to my blog for many reasons. Also, I wanted it to be very clean and simple. So, here we are. What is included in each of these "Notes" will vary by day. I'd love to do one every day. I am crazy. I was thinking about waiting until the New Year to start doing this, but I've been getting antsy to JUST FUCKING GO AND DO IT. The posts on this site will be more raw and to the point and less polished than my blog—two different beasts. Speaking of RAW..."
Note 002
"Out About Town: We ran some errands this morning, which included Home Depot. We spotted Graham-ta Clause."
Note 003
"Feedly Tip: I'm all about promoting things I like and believe in. I was never a huge user of Google Reader, but other apps filled the void when that was shut down. Sometime earlier this year, I started using the free version of Feedly to follow sites/feeds. I love having one place to aggregate feeds of my choosing. You can follow my blog or these notes by entering the web address of either, separately, and then choosing to add the site's RSS."
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Not So New Posts To Consume
I haven't published a post for THE NOT SO DAILY DUMP since last autumn, so I'm a bit behind on this section. I haven't been writing a lot for GSW lately, so catching up soon-ish shouldn't be too hard. What purpose does this section serve? Well, things get lost in the giant world of the internet. I don't expect people to know about every post I publish, and I certainly don't expect people to spend hours on my blog reading post after post. This is one way to get posts in front of new eyeballs. You, my beautiful reader, can decide what you do from there.
She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy, But Not Really
This was an old post I set out to “refurbish” (aka revisit, spruce up a bit, and re-share for anyone new to my blog) and ended up adding on to. Doubling the post, actually. It's very clear what I've added. I felt like there was a part two that needed to be but didn't want to write another, separate post.
Ruminating Forty: The Becoming of an Iconic Age
This was a post that I had thought about doing for quite a while. I felt like the intersection of turning 40 and having a blog warranted it. I don't know how long I had thought about it, but I wouldn't be surprised if the idea came a year or more in advance. I didn't know exactly what I'd write until I started it last autumn, but it became what it is. I'm not sure if it conquered a lot of new territory, but I feel like it summed up a lot of bread crumbs that I've left in my other posts. Still, if it's the first post of mine you've read, it's a great introduction to me at age 40.
Got Resolve? 2018 Goals Revisited
Setting goals and sharing them with the world is great, but I think that gesture calls for a follow-up. Sure, you didn't ask for one, but maybe you forgot that this is MY blog? I've been on a march of some sort my whole life, but more recently, I've focused my mind on bettering myself and reaching my larger life goals once and for all, come hell or high water, with no one standing in my way to derail me. Are these goals that I share each year everything I'm shooting for? No. What I share is actually a small-but-still-important sample of the bigger picture. They help to keep me headed in what I consider to be the right direction and to be more and more results oriented. Success begets success, sucka.
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Shine That Spotlight, You Crazy Diamond
About a year ago, my wife, Christine, recorded herself singing for a composition by Eric Whitacre. She joined more than 8,000 voices that made up the vocal part of the musical piece. It was published on YouTube November 12, 2018. While you can't hear her specifically, I still think it's a cool thing to be a part of. Plus, space. Here is the description from YouTube:
“Eric Whitacre's "Deep Field: The Impossible Magnitude of our Universe" is a unique film and musical experience inspired by one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time: the Hubble Telescope's Deep Field image.”
This year, Christine has become a brand ambassador for both Zyia and Nuun. Whether or not that means anything to you, she has been working hard to have opportunities like this, and I'm proud of her accomplishments.
If you'd like to find out more about her ambassadorship or follow her running, go to
ChristineSedam.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
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Videos From The Treadmill
I had figured that my next video here would be from Impact Theory, but it's hard to pick just one video to share. I recently started following the Rich Roll Podcast (that's his name) on YouTube, and this episode really spoke to me. It's only the second episode that I've watched, so that helps with the picking issue. The book they talk about in the podcast, The Passion Paradox, may have to go on my long list of “someday, maybe” books. I found the episode to be informative and thoughtful. I love feeding and growing my brain while I'm running on the treadmill. I keep thinking that there has to be some added physical/mental resilience/strengthening benefit to using my brain and body simultaneously in this capacity.
Enjoy the video below now or bookmark it at YouTube for a later date.
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Did you know that I also have a daily blog, Notes.gs?
